Dear Everybody,
This week was exciting. It went by pretty fast. The days are long but the weeks are short. Monday we did 3 hours of tracting in 25 degree weather and I was feeling sick through it all. On Tuesday we had interviews with President and Sister Hughes and that was awesome! They are such loving and humble people. I got to drive for the first time in almost 3 months because Elder Mills was feeling nauseous and then I got to drive the next day on exchange and we only almost died twice. For exchange I was with Elder Hoole and he is a real good guy. We taught some people, tracked, studied a bit. Ya know, missionary stuff. We did a lot of biking this week too... in the rain... it was a shower of heavenly blessings. I was so tired going home uphill, I had to say a prayer for strength, otherwise it would have been so much harder. I was soaked and exhausted but it was worth it because we found a lot more people to teach while out biking. While carrying our bikes upstairs, the nonmember downstairs asked if we were building temples. It was actually a really good, funny joke. On Sunday, Elder Mills and brother Hatton gave a deaf person a blessing and I translated for her. She said it was a beautiful blessing and thanked all of us. It was such a great moment.
We taught the Ward family the "stop smoking" lesson on Saturday and they are still going strong! They are such awesome people and are really looking forward to their baptism, but they are super busy and tired all the time, but they make time for us which is amazing! We are also teaching a nice man named Kevin and he is just praying to know what to do in his life right now. We have already taught him most of the lessons, but he's having trouble wrapping his head around it all. That's where faith comes in. You have to try it out and put in the effort, then God will let you know.
Love,
Elder Stephen Ray
